http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200407/200407150028.html Lee Ha-won may2@private July 15,2004 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs send an urgent message to the Korean Embassy in Beijing instructing it to confirm whether the recent hacking of computers at major national institutions is connected with the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army. Ahead of this, as the Foreign Ministry was protesting Chinese state-run media distortions of Goguryo history to Chinese Ambassador Li Bin on Wednesday, the ministry requested China's active cooperation in solving the hacking problem. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Shin Bong-kil said Li stated he would relay the request to Beijing and would work hard to see that the facts behind the hacking incident were revealed. The Foreign Ministry said, however, that since neither the identity of the hacker nor the level of PLA involvement has been revealed, it was best to respond cautiously. In accordance, at a meeting of high-ranking Foreign Ministry officials Thursday, the ministry decided to demand that measures be taken through diplomatic channels after National Intelligence Service and police investigations have been completed. In some Foreign Ministry quarters, there are concerns that if the Chinese government doesn't cooperate, the criminal may not be revealed and the matter itself may fall into a labyrinth. They say that if the criminal is not revealed, there are limits to the diplomatic measures the Korean government could apply. Moreover, there are those within the government pointing out that a system must be created in which the country could actively respond diplomatically to cyber-terrorism. In the countermeasures committee set up to deal with the Chinese hacking incident, there is only one Foreign Ministry official of bureau-head rank, and within the ministry, only the second division of the Northeast Asia bureau is handling the matter. Accordingly, some government figures say the Foreign Ministry should better recognize the severity of the incident and respond more aggressively. The Foreign Ministry worries that with Sino-Korean tensions growing as a result of the Goguryo history issue, should it be confirmed that the hacking was conducted by the PLA, relations between the two countries could worsen. _________________________________________ Help InfoSec News with a donation: http://www.c4i.org/donation.html
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